I love my two boys.....and Goldie!!!!

I am super excited about what I learned this week.  I decided it was time to read a few different tutorials about how to best capture a silhouette.  Many of the blogs I follow have had at least one silhouette shot that I loved, so I was determined to have one of my own.  We went out to Davis Island with dinner and a blanket in tow.  We ate and I waited for the perfect time to capture the hubster and little B.  I don't know that it was the most technical way, but I did learn that the light needs to be directly behind the subject to achieve a black silhouette.  There may be another way to achieve it, but not at my skill level.

I think this one or one of the others I took will be my next canvas purchase.  I absolutely love it.

AFTER

Here are the steps I took using PSE8:

• white balance correction
• sharpened at 0.5
• levels adjustment layer: increased my blacks and my whites a little
• increased brightness
• increased contrast
• color curves adjustment: adjusting shadows, midtone brightness, and midtone contrast
• duplicated my background layer (command J on MAC)
• applied high pass filter to duplicated layer, then applied soft light blending mode
• created a new adjustment layer-LEVELS: increased shadows to 8 and midtones to 1.45
• used a layer mask to erase some of the adjustment from Goldie's face
• created adjustment layer HUE/SATURATION: decreased saturation to -3
• created adjustment layer-PHOTO FILTER: warming filter
• used a layer mask to erase the adjustment from the background
• duplicated background layer
• used quick selection tool selecting background on the duplicated layer
• used paint bucket tool to fill selected area white, then lowered opacity to 15%
• flattened image and created a text box for fun

I have to say I usually do not edit with this many steps, but I am determined to learn how to use my editing software to the best of my (and it's) ability.  Therefore, I followed as many of Ashley's steps as I could.

BEFORE